Should I wait for IDS 11?

Hi Informixers, we are presently installing a new database server to replace our old machine running IDS 7.31 (BTW: without any major problems since 2001). In the process, we were planning to upgrade to IDS 10. However, since IDS 11 ("Cheetah") is already in public beta, could it be worth while to wait until it becomes GA? Any info around here when that will be? We've been quite happy with IDS 7.31, the only additional features in 10 that are attractive for us are table level restore and the possibility to use datablades. So far, I've not seen any "killer features" in Cheetah that we need in our rather low-end environment. Are there any reasons to wait for IDS 11, other than going with the newest available version rather than upgrading to an already "outdated" product? Regards, Richard

IDS 11 will be released soon, however, I do not know when it'll be available in Europe, so it is more about how it fits in your planning. > -----Original Message----- > From: informix-list-bounces@iiug.org [mailto:informix-list- > bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of Richard Spitz > Sent: Monday, June 11, 2007 09:54 > To: informix-list@iiug.org > Subject: Should I wait for IDS 11? > > Hi Informixers, > > we are presently installing a new database server to replace our old > machine > running IDS 7.31 (BTW: without any major problems since 2001). In the > process, > we were planning to upgrade to IDS 10. > > However, since IDS 11 ("Cheetah") is already in public beta, could it > be worth > while to wait until it becomes GA? Any info around here when that will > be? > > We've been quite happy with IDS 7.31, the only additional features in > 10 that > are attractive for us are table level restore and the possibility to > use > datablades. So far, I've not seen any "killer features" in Cheetah that > we > need in our rather low-end environment. > > Are there any reasons to wait for IDS 11, other than going with the > newest > available version rather than upgrading to an already "outdated" > product? > > Regards, Richard > _______________________________________________ > Informix-list mailing list > Informix-list@iiug.org > http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list

Richard Spitz wrote: > Hi Informixers, > > we are presently installing a new database server to replace our old machine > running IDS 7.31 (BTW: without any major problems since 2001). In the process, > we were planning to upgrade to IDS 10. > > However, since IDS 11 ("Cheetah") is already in public beta, could it be worth > while to wait until it becomes GA? Any info around here when that will be? I believe it's this week as this is what I was told last week. I think the electronic media will be available first, CDs later. > We've been quite happy with IDS 7.31, the only additional features in 10 that > are attractive for us are table level restore and the possibility to use > datablades. So far, I've not seen any "killer features" in Cheetah that we > need in our rather low-end environment. Main advantages can be summarised as: - Less administration. - Automatic engine performance tuning for some parameters. - Some performance bottlenecks removed. - SQL enhancements. - More options for replication such as RSS and SDS secondary servers which can be used in combination with each other. - New web-based admin tool replacing ISA. - SQL and query plan tracing much improved. - Ability to run onmode commands using SQL. - New sensors for system health checks. - Built-in task scheduler. - Better installer with (documented) silent option. - More built-in datablades such as spatial, time series etc. - Lots of smaller enhancements. The task scheduler, sensors and SQL interface to onmode commands is rather nice as you can do thinks like check whether you might be running out of space and add a chunk, for example. Regards, Ben.

On 11/06/07, Richard Spitz <Richard.Spitz@med.uni-muenchen.de> wrote: > Hi Informixers, > > we are presently installing a new database server to replace our old machine > running IDS 7.31 (BTW: without any major problems since 2001). In the process, > we were planning to upgrade to IDS 10. > > However, since IDS 11 ("Cheetah") is already in public beta, could it be worth > while to wait until it becomes GA? Any info around here when that will be? > > We've been quite happy with IDS 7.31, the only additional features in 10 that > are attractive for us are table level restore and the possibility to use > datablades. So far, I've not seen any "killer features" in Cheetah that we > need in our rather low-end environment. > > Are there any reasons to wait for IDS 11, other than going with the newest > available version rather than upgrading to an already "outdated" product? > > Regards, Richard > _______________________________________________ > Informix-list mailing list > Informix-list@iiug.org > http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list > Richard If you don't mind being leading edge and living in the fast lane then wait for IDS11. Personnally I value my sanity and employment and would suggest IDS10 now (latest xC release) and leave 11 for 6-9 months to allow it to settle down and get a couple of patch releases out. IDS10 will give you a significant performance improvement over IDS7, but you MUST keep statistics reasonably, it is very unforgiving of inaccurate row counts. Keith

"Ben Thompson" <ben@nomonitorsoftspam.com> wrote in message news:f4j8j9$rvk$1$830fa7b3@news.demon.co.uk... > Richard Spitz wrote: >> However, since IDS 11 ("Cheetah") is already in public beta, could it be >> worth >> while to wait until it becomes GA? Any info around here when that will >> be? > > I believe it's this week as this is what I was told last week. I think the > electronic media will be available first, CDs later. This week is the marketing launch. That has little or no connection with the actually availability of the product, which is some months off I think. > Main advantages can be summarised as: > - Less administration. That's an advantage? ;-)

There is a developerworks article that goes over each new Cheetah feature at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0705saraswatipura/ I checked the link a few seconds ago and it is currently offline with the following message: This article is being updated with current information. Check back soon for the updated version. A couple of features that come to mind are the new non blocking checkpoint mechanism, auto lru and aio vp tuning based on load and the features added via the new sysadmin database. You can use this feature list to determine if waiting for 11.1 is the right choice for you. Although, since it is so darned easy to upgrade IDS going with 10.0 now and upgrading to 11.1 around UC3 sounds like a good option too. Andrew ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Spitz" <Richard.Spitz@med.uni-muenchen.de> Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix To: <informix-list@iiug.org> Sent: Monday, June 11, 2007 2:53 AM Subject: Should I wait for IDS 11? > Hi Informixers, > > we are presently installing a new database server to replace our old > machine > running IDS 7.31 (BTW: without any major problems since 2001). In the > process, > we were planning to upgrade to IDS 10. > > However, since IDS 11 ("Cheetah") is already in public beta, could it be > worth > while to wait until it becomes GA? Any info around here when that will be? > > We've been quite happy with IDS 7.31, the only additional features in 10 > that > are attractive for us are table level restore and the possibility to use > datablades. So far, I've not seen any "killer features" in Cheetah that we > need in our rather low-end environment. > > Are there any reasons to wait for IDS 11, other than going with the newest > available version rather than upgrading to an already "outdated" product? > > Regards, Richard > _______________________________________________ > Informix-list mailing list > Informix-list@iiug.org > http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list

I'd strongly recommend going with IDS 10. You'll be in pre- production for a while working on tuning and testing. I would not go into production with an initial release of any product, so if you delay for 11, you will be waiting quite a while to upgrade if you wait for FixPack 2. Christine On Jun 11, 2007, at 2:53 AM, Richard Spitz wrote: > Hi Informixers, > > we are presently installing a new database server to replace our > old machine > running IDS 7.31 (BTW: without any major problems since 2001). In > the process, > we were planning to upgrade to IDS 10. > > However, since IDS 11 ("Cheetah") is already in public beta, could > it be worth > while to wait until it becomes GA? Any info around here when that > will be? > > We've been quite happy with IDS 7.31, the only additional features > in 10 that > are attractive for us are table level restore and the possibility > to use > datablades. So far, I've not seen any "killer features" in Cheetah > that we > need in our rather low-end environment. > > Are there any reasons to wait for IDS 11, other than going with the > newest > available version rather than upgrading to an already "outdated" > product? > > Regards, Richard > _______________________________________________ > Informix-list mailing list > Informix-list@iiug.org > http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list

On 11 Jun, 16:02, "Captain Pedantic" <theharlequi...@hotmail.com> wrote: > "Ben Thompson" <b...@nomonitorsoftspam.com> wrote in message > > news:f4j8j9$rvk$1$830fa7b3@news.demon.co.uk... > > > Richard Spitz wrote: > >> However, since IDS 11 ("Cheetah") is already in public beta, could it be > >> worth > >> while to wait until it becomes GA? Any info around here when that will > >> be? > > > I believe it's this week as this is what I was told last week. I think the > > electronic media will be available first, CDs later. > > This week is the marketing launch. That has little or no connection with > the actually availability of the product, which is some months off I think. > > > Main advantages can be summarised as: > > - Less administration. > > That's an advantage? ;-) > > From a selfish point of view I'd like to see lots of people pile in and try > out the new version. Thus when I come to dip my toe in the water, at about > FC4, lots of the bugs will have been ironed out! There were a lot of nasty > bugs in early releases of 10. Maybe QA ain't what it used to be, I don't > know ... Yep, depsite what the UK Informix Support Manager says I don't touch releases below xC4! Currently looking at a nasty 10.00.FC6 bug where onunload via TCP connections consistently crashes the instance, won't be using that then! Also I'm having ISM issues and have been told ISM will be going away soon, nice to know that the only way ot backup informix servers in parallel will soon be a chargable item whereas DB2 has the ability to do parallel backups included in the product. Anyone from IBM want to comment on yet another way DB2 is being treated better than Informix?

david@smooth1.co.uk wrote: > On 11 Jun, 16:02, "Captain Pedantic" <theharlequi...@hotmail.com> > wrote: >> "Ben Thompson" <b...@nomonitorsoftspam.com> wrote in message >> >> news:f4j8j9$rvk$1$830fa7b3@news.demon.co.uk... >> >>> Richard Spitz wrote: >>>> However, since IDS 11 ("Cheetah") is already in public beta, could it be >>>> worth >>>> while to wait until it becomes GA? Any info around here when that will >>>> be? >>> I believe it's this week as this is what I was told last week. I think the >>> electronic media will be available first, CDs later. >> This week is the marketing launch. That has little or no connection with >> the actually availability of the product, which is some months off I think. >> >>> Main advantages can be summarised as: >>> - Less administration. >> That's an advantage? ;-) >> >> From a selfish point of view I'd like to see lots of people pile in and try >> out the new version. Thus when I come to dip my toe in the water, at about >> FC4, lots of the bugs will have been ironed out! There were a lot of nasty >> bugs in early releases of 10. Maybe QA ain't what it used to be, I don't >> know ... As for QA... I recall several versions as nasty... 7.31.UD1, 7.30... I have an IDS 10.00FC1 working with not a single problem... My point is: every version has problems... And we can hit them or not... > > Yep, depsite what the UK Informix Support Manager says I don't touch > releases below xC4! As I say above, it really depends... Recently there were some people with issues in FC5 (the memory problem). Some of the issues have very simple workarounds. Others are real show stoppers. If this makes anybody feel any better, one of the strategic directions I've seen pointed to the support structure is that we should avoid problems and not only solve them. This can turn out to be just "propaganda", but I really appreciate to see this kind of concern in the support teams... The example above of the memory problem can be used to illustrate this: 1- It's one of the bugs that shouldn't happen, because it's caused by bad programming practices 2- Since it appeared, and it has such a simple workaround, there is no reason why customer with support shouldn't be alerted > Currently looking at a nasty 10.00.FC6 bug where onunload via TCP > connections consistently crashes the instance, won't be using that > then! Don't know about you, but I prefer a stable version with one or two fixes than to keep constantly jumping from version to version. Unless of course there are new features that you want to use. > > Also I'm having ISM issues and have been told ISM will be going away > soon, nice to know that the only way ot backup informix servers in > parallel > will soon be a chargable item whereas DB2 has the ability to do > parallel backups included in the product. > > Anyone from IBM want to comment on yet another way DB2 is being > treated better than Informix? > I don't have authority to comment on this from your point of view, but if you allow me a bit of fun, I'd say this is a measure to compete against O****. AFAIK there is no storage manager include in it also :) On the more serious side, if someone told you that ISM will go away, than you should ask why and when... Maybe it's good news and not bad... Finally, for the original poster: - Migration from IDS 10 to 11.10 should be just a question of testing in your environment/stop instance/start instance - For IDS 11.10 you'll probably have to wait a few months. The final date should be announce in a few days - You have to consider your feelings for new releases... - You should consider how much work have you done in preparation for 10... Regards -- Fernando Nunes Portugal http://informix-technology.blogspot.com My email works... but I don't check it frequently...